Halloween Party
by JanSuch
Summary: Helen throws a party for all her friends, human and not so human. Short story, takes place tonight!


The Sanctuary was having a Halloween party. But since the new facility in Hollow Earth housed dangerous Abnormals, the party would be held on the surface in a very large rented hall.

The hall was closer to a warehouse, actually, but it was situated near an entrance to the underground world, and had eight bathrooms which allowed designations as "mens" "womens" and a few other categories as well. It was a good three stories high in the center of the curved ceiling and had both human-sized and large roll-up doors. Perfect, considering the guest list.

The usual decorations were in place- pumpkins, skeletons, ghosts, and black and orange crepe paper, but Helen knew the main attraction would be the guests themselves. She had invited both humans and non-humans and could hardly wait to see who came as what and what came as who.

The menu had been a bit difficult. She finally decided to have one long set of tables with food edible by humans, and on the opposite wall, tables with more specialized snacks. The chef had assured her he would avoid dressing up anything to look like anything else- no fake eyeballs or brains or the like. As long as no one got the two sets of tables confused, everything would be fine.

She made sure the "specialized" table would have plasma. She didn't think any vampires would be coming, but just in case one particular vampire decided to show up . . . well, he drank wine too, so perhaps the plasma wasn't necessary but she did want to be a good hostess. She didn't really expect to see him though, he'd left months ago and she hadn't heard a word from him in all that time.

Her own costume wasn't anything special. Everyone knew her too well; no one would be fooled by a disguise. So she wore a simple nineteenth century blue ball gown and a mask, and carried a reticule with a handkerchief, a compact in case her nose got shiny, and a gun just in case you-know-who showed up. She definitely owed him bullet or two for the way he had left her. And besides, with so many different species in one room, a gun could come in very handy.

Will and Abby were coming as Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, which meant they could carry their guns openly, although they would each have one stunner as well as a six-shooter. Henry and Erika were coming as Antony and Cleopatra. Big Guy wouldn't tell her what his costume would be, but assured her Henry didn't mind, which made her wonder what in the world he was up to.

On Halloween near dusk Helen arrived with her Sanctuary contingent. The last of the food delivery trucks was just leaving, and she turned on the music as others started to arrive. Kate and Garris showed up as a couple of hippies from the sixties. The Delacourt clan dropped in- literally since they could fly- in their usual black leather, adding hats, helmets, chains, skull-and-crossbones pendants, and fake tattoos and declared themselves a motorcycle gang. Fortunately they had left the youngest children home with a sitter.

Helen was amused to see a medusa arrive in a Medusa costume, her real snakes wiggling happily among the rubber ones. The Three Little Pigs showed up with the Big Bad Wolf. Helen recognized the wolf at once- Biggie had just donned a wolf head and pinned a fake tail on himself. His natural hairiness took care of the rest. But the pigs? Helen nearly laughed when she recognized them as a contingent of the London HAPs- "wolves" in pigs clothing!

There were quite a few Abnormals dressed as humans. Helen saw Bill and Hillary Clinton masks on a pair of frog-like Abnormals, who were dressed as gypsies. Another reptilian with green skin had added a long nose and chin, a wig, and a witch costume and used her naturally green complexion to come as the Wicked Witch of the West.

Helen wasn't sure if the person in the gorilla suit was human or not. From the way he moved, she would guess not, but it could be a human with acting skills. Too short to be Nikola, though. She half expected if he had the nerve to show up he would either come as himself, or as a vampire- also himself.

The party was in full swing. People and beings were dancing in various ways, talking, and munching on goodies. She checked the tables occasionally to make sure the right folks were grazing on the right side of the room. It also helped her identify who was who.

Something gauzy floated past her- a ghost? She turned to look; it was a darned good costume. She looked down to see what the ghost's feet looked like, but it didn't have any and it wasn't touching the floor. Then it moved quickly and disappeared- either into the crowd, or just disappeared, she wasn't sure. Helen took a long sip of wine. It was only her second glass in three hours, so she was sure the wine had nothing to do with what she had just seen.

Wandering past the specialized snack tables, she noticed the plasma had been completely drained. She looked around. She had sent an invitation to the Vampire Society, but she hadn't expected any of them to come. She hadn't seen anyone that looked particularly vampiric, not even the guy dressed as Dracula who looked a lot like Bela Lugosi. But people were wearing costumes on their costumes, so it had become impossible to tell what was real inside the costume, or what was real pretending to be a costume. It was the most confusing costume party she had ever been to, and she was enjoying it immensely.

All of the lights blinked. Then they double-blinked. What was going on? Then the room went absolutely black. A murmur of voices rose, and Helen heard someone say "my flashlight isn't working".

With prickle of her scalp, Helen realized it was midnight. The building began to vibrate. An earthquake? No, this was a steady, growing vibration, not an erratic shaking. Just when she thought it might start to do damage, it stopped, and at the same moment came a loud "CRACK-BOOM" and painfully bright light double-blinked and then stayed on in the middle of the room, up near the ceiling.

Helen squinted up, trying to see. There was a dark form suspended in the middle of the ball of bright light, moving, but she couldn't see it very well past the glare. The light didn't seem to penetrate the rest of the darkness, but she realized when she looked around that the room was being lit by black light. So at least everyone could see each other now, even if everything looked very odd.

Little pinpoints of purple, blue, and green light appeared around the room, too high for anyone to reach. They grew to softball size, and then started to zoom around like little comets, leaving sparkly trails and slowly dissipating.

People started to applaud. Helen called out "No, it's not a show! It could be dangerous!" But no one was listening. The applause continued as spheres of colored light pulsed out of the bright white center in rainbow colors. Someone near the door said "Hey, it's outside too, it's going right through the roof and walls."

Some people pushed outside to see, and Helen moved under the white light and drew her gun. Whatever this was, it had to stop. The rainbow lights did stop, but little tongues of electrical energy flickered around the edge of the ball of light and made her hesitate. They extended to five feet, then ten, crackling wildly. Helen couldn't see the figure in the middle any more, she had no target, but she was afraid the electricity was going to hit someone if it continued to grow. But it suddenly stopped, the bright light pulsed twice, and went out with another CRACK-BOOM. The building gave a little shiver, and the normal lights came back on. Helen felt something light land on top of her head as everyone applauded again.

She froze, but whatever it was didn't move. She gingerly used the barrel of her gun to nudge it off of her. A little balled-up piece of aluminum foil attached to a handkerchief parachute floated to the floor.

No one was paying any attention to her. She picked it up and carefully began to open the foil. Will and Abby came up to her. Will said "How come you didn't tell me about that? I almost shot your performer." Abby added "You really should have told us ahead of time, although it was a really good show."

Helen replied "It wasn't a show, I didn't hire anyone. It was as much a surprise to me as it was to you." Inside the foil was a balled-up piece of paper. Helen opened it and read:

_Dearest Helen:_

_You look beautiful tonight. Blue always was one of your best colors although you are sexier in red. Did you like my costume? I'll be back as soon as I can; you know I wouldn't stay away unless I had to. I miss you. _

_ Love,_

_ N. Sorcerer_

Helen looked down at her blue dress. How did he do that? Had he written the note while standing on thin air putting on a light show, or had he known ahead of time she would be wearing blue?

Will was looking at her worriedly. "What is it, is it trouble?"

Helen sighed but her lips quirked into a half smile. "Absolutely" she said, and held up the note and added one word of explanation. "Nikola."


End file.
